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{
    "id": 197452,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/197452/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 111,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Raila",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 195,
        "legal_name": "Raila Amolo Odinga",
        "slug": "raila-odinga"
    },
    "content": "We are all mortals. We, therefore, must look at what we want to bequeath the future generations of our country. We want to bequeath a better country to our children and our children's children, than the one we have lived in, ourselves. This requires that we combine our efforts in the development of our country. We should not look at what we have done here as an end but as a means to an end. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we have now laid a foundation that will enable us to carry out the reforms that this country has been needing for a long time. This is the time for us to come together because it is not possible for any side to carry out comprehensive constitutional reforms that we need. This country needs a comprehensive land reform, because land, a factor of production, has become a means of speculation. People who need land for the purpose of production have been denied access to it. It is, therefore, important that somebody looks at our land laws and carries out a comprehensive land reform that will enable our people to own and live in every part of this country. We also need to reconcile our people. Therefore, we need to face that ugly animal called \"ethnicity\" head-on. A country that is torn along ethnic lines is a country which is at war with itself and, can therefore, not hope to develop. Let us come together. I propose that we hold a national ethnicity conference where we will have representatives from all ethnic communities in our country, to deliberate on how our ethnic communities will live with each other; the inter-ethnic relationships, so that we can develop proper codes of conduct for our people. It should be an offence for somebody to deride somebody simply because he has pierced his ears, removed two or six of his teeth, or he has not been circumcised. When we do that, we will be in the front path of uniting our people. At the moment, we know that if you are going to attend an interview, you have to look at March 18, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 201 the panel that is going to interview you for employment. If you are a Mutua and you do not see a Kamba in that panel, then you have no confidence that you will be hired. If someone said that his name is Wanyama, that already would register some bias in someone else's mind. If it is a Kamau, one already knows that, that is not the person that they were looking for. At the end of it, people say that they were looking for merit. What sort of merit were you looking for? You know very clearly that your mind is already very biased and you are not a Kenyan! That person belongs to the Kenya of yesterday and not the Kenya of today and tomorrow that we want to develop."
}